The King's Horse
by BloodyCrystal
Summary: Mister, you can say anything you want about me.  I'm gonna have to ask you not to talk about my horse that way.


**Summary: **Mister, you can say anything you want about me. I'm gonna have to ask you not to talk about my horse that way.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own BLEACH. The above quote was found on the 10 Inspirations LJ.

Kurosaki Ichigo hates his inner Hollow. Despises him, really. Depending on his inverse is probably the worst thing Ichigo can do (although there are a lot worse things that Ichigo _cannot_ do, because really, his nature is such that failure has no meaning and abandonment does not exist, because he is one of those mysterious beings we normal people know as _heroes_).

And so you see that using the strength of his inner Hollow understandably takes a toll on Ichigo's psyche. He can never be sure if the other will permanently take over, for the Hollow is constantly looking for that one moment of weakness that will give him dominance over the body. Ichigo refuses to let that happen, but he knows, deep down, that it _might_ if he continues to use the inner strength obtained when trying to overcome the injuries he received during his first encounter with Kuchiki Byakuya.

Furthermore, the Hollow clearly loves bloodshed and wants nothing more than to kill and destroy, as most hollows are wont to do. Ichigo, on the other hand, is not just a hero but a _protector._ He stands against everything his Hollow wants to do.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that Kurosaki Ichigo hates his inner Hollow and curses it out whenever he refers to it or talks with it.

It should, however, come as a surprise when Ichigo _defends_ his inner Hollow.

He doesn't do it often, of course. But there are times when Ichigo will get an odd look on his face and say something that could be taken as a defense of his inverse. No one is brave enough or stupid enough to point this out, of course, but there are witnesses. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of these witnesses are in the Eleventh Division.

When asked about it once, Madarame Ikkaku shrugged and said, "It's Ichigo's choice, ya know? If he wants to take that white-faced bastard _swing dancin'_, it's still Ichigo's choice. 'Cuz, ya know, that white-faced bastard's kind of _Ichigo_, in a way."

Well, most shinigami, especially from other divisions, regard Madarame as a raving lunatic.

Lieutenant Abarai Renji of the Sixth Division, formerly of the Eleventh Division, formerly of the Fifth Division, is a bit more vocal on the subject: "I just don't get why Ichigo sometimes turns around with this dopey kind of look and says that he's got to thank the asshole for a lot of shit! You'd think the moron would'a learned by now that his stupid hollow's an asshole that just wants his body!"

Abarai, of course, is considered a bit biased by the gossipmongers of Soul Society, all of whom are convinced that there is a love triangle involved in the relations between Ichigo and Abarai (one that Abarai appears to be losing, if one listens to such ridiculous rumors).

The Quincy Ishida Uryuu is known to comment every so often, "If Kurosaki can't control himself, I will be more than happy to put him out of his misery."

The Quincy, it should be noted, is even more biased than Abarai due to the fact that Ichigo's inner Hollow once ripped his arm off in Hueco Mundo.

Kuchiki Rukia of Thirteenth Division is the reason Ichigo's latent spiritual powers were awakened completely in the first place. She has not had much, if any, contact with any form of Ichigo's inner Hollow, and so her reaction is perhaps one of the most interesting. It is said that she once had a conversation with Ichigo on the topic of his Hollow. According to Eleventh Division's Ayasegawa Yumichika, it went something along these lines:

"Idiot! How many other fights are you going to win because you went berserk?"

"Oi! I fight my own battles fair and square!"

"Then what do you call it when that mask shows up without you putting it on, moron?"

"Like you know anything, midget! Besides, he helped save _your_ sorry ass, didn't he?"

"As if I wanted to be saved in the first place!"

According to Ayasegawa and numerous other witnesses (the fight being conducted at full volume, like so many other interactions between the pair), the argument degenerated at this point into insults and came to closely resemble the bickering of an old married couple.

From this, a careful scholar can come to but one conclusion: Kurosaki Ichigo does not hate his Hollow, but he does not know that he can do anything but hate it due to the relationship between the actual and the inverse.


End file.
